The chronicles of a crazy idiot, hoping to catch that elusive big one.

Monday, October 02, 2006

One Fathom Bank : 30 Sept - 1 Oct - Catch Report

Location : One Fathom Bank, Straits of MelakaDate : 30 September 2006 - 1 October 2006Time : 10.00 am (30/09/06) - 10.30 am (01/10/06)Anglers involved : Team Crazyfishermen and Team Maniam (Total 8 anglers)Boatman (tekong) : Encik Nazami (019-3477766)After many moons of without a proper fishing, Team Crazyfishermen (plus a few extras) made a trip to One Fathom Bank (OFB). For this trip, we had 2 newbies with us; my cousin Kesvin @ Rajiv and my brother, Sharveen.

:::... OFB Veterans - Navin and Sharma ...:::

:::... OFB Newbies - Kesvin and Sharveen ...:::

The plan was to rendevous with Team Maniam in Klang at 8.00 am. Being Team Crazyfishermen, our timing never goes according to plan. We only met up with them at 9.00 am. After a quick breakfast, we all made our way to the jetty.

The ride to OFB was quite bumpy. The waves were quite strong. Dark cloud followed us all the way to OFB. Lucky for us it didn't pour. Just a slight drizzle. As we got closer to OFB, the was still gloomy, but no rain. This is a good thing for us, as we would not be burnt while fishing.

Once we got onto OFB, we were suprised that there were no one on the lighthouse. Not a single soul were fishing up there. This is quite unusual as from our previous trip to OFB, the lighthouse is always occupied with people fishing. This was good for us as we could fish from where ever we wanted without worrying about getting our line tangled with other fishos.

:::... L-R : Kesvin, Sharveen and Navin ....:::

:::... Krazie Fishie aka Sharma ...:::

After sitting up our base camp, we proceeded to set up our live bait tank. Our live bait well was quite a good idea I would say. We would later realize that we had made a big error in planning.

:::... Baby pool filled with baitfish ...:::

We had place live selar kuning in the kiddie pool to be used as our live bait. However, we didn't realize that they were fast swimmers and it was quite difficult to catch them with our bare hands. We had neglected to bring along a net to catch the fish. The sight of 4 clowns trying to catch those fishes we a sight to behold. (Note to self : Next time bring net).

The condition was perfect for fishing. Navin and myself had 2 lines each in the water. Navin went for the baloon rig for both his lines and I went for 1 ballooon rig and 1 bottom rig.

:::... Empty OFB. Waiting for a strike ...:::

The 2 newbies were enjoying themselves with the apollo rig. There were busy catching bait fish for Navin and myself to used. They were really ejoing themselves. They were getting familiarized with the proper technique of casting and removing the fishes from the hook without murdering the fish.

:::... Sharveen jigging for selar kuning ...:::

:::... See the smile on his face ...:::

:::... Slow and steady ...:::

:::... Kesvin doing his stuff ...:::

:::... All smiles from the newbie ...:::

:::... Slowly does it ...:::

Navin and myself were busy keeping an eye on our rods when we heard a commotion behind us. Seems like a member from Team Maniam has landed a todak. Earlier he lost a todak because the line snapped under preassure. This time, he skillfully played the fish till it was tired before bring it up.

:::... Todak by a member from Team Maniam ...:::

We were both pumped up after seeing the catch. We now know that there are biggies in the vicinity. It was a matter of time before it was our turn to land a fish. Shortly after successfully landing the todak, Maniam from Team Maniam's reel gave a scream. It was a shill scream... It was the scream of a reel in distress. With lightning quick speed, Maniam ran towards his reel and gave his rod a whip. FISH ONNNN...!!!!!!!!!! After a brief fight, the fish was landed. It was a queenfish (ikan talang). There was joy painted on Maniam's face.

:::... Maniam with his queenfish (talang) ...:::

Soon after Maniam had landed his queenie, there was further exictment. Our boatman's assistant, who was busy apollo jigging for selar kuning had a hit. A queenfish had taken the selar kuning that had been hooked on the apollo rig. What a sight that was.... The boatman's assistant was trying his mighty best to control the fish and prevent the apollo rig from giving way. The fight lasted for more than 10 minutes before the fish was subdued. Wha a catch that was..!!!!

:::... Queenie on apollo by the boatman's assistant ..:::

Maniam had another two more hits, but didn't manage to land the fish due to terminal tackle failure. One fish was lost when the hook straightened, and another fish was lost when the clips gave way. Must have been one hell of a fish for it to that to happen.

When nighfall came, we all proceeded to change our bait to fresh squids. I was busy preparing the rigs for my brother and cousin when Navin had a hit on his line. He was using fresh squid as bait. After a brief fight the fish was landed. According the lighthouse keepers, the fish caught is know as tebal pipi or pipi tebal. Something like that. I am not to sure myself. I can't seem to find the fish on fishbase.org. If anyone one of you know the name of this fish, please enlighten me.

:::... Anyone care to identify this fish ...:::

The two newbies were excited after upon seeing Navin's catch. They waited patiently while I rigged their rods for thm. One I was done, I showed them the proper way to place the bait on the hook and the proper way of casting. They did as instructed to them and very soon they were rewarded. They both managed to get double hook ups. Hehehe.... I have probems identifying this fish as well. Any help for you guys out there.

:::... Sharveen with his double hook up ...:::

:::... Kesvin with his double hook up ...:::

Everything went down hill from then on. There were no more hits by the biggies. Only small fishes were caught. The two newbies decided to retire for the night at around 11.30pm and Navin and myself stayed up till about 2.30am before retiring for the night.

The next day, we were up by 7.30am and didn't waste any time. We immediately proceed to get some live bait and drifted out our baits. The two newbies prepared breakfast and we were soon enjoying lebanese bread with canned chicken curry. We washed it all down with strong black coffee.

:::... Newbies enjoying their breakfast ...:::

While drifting our baits using balloon rig, we saw a commotion. The queenies were on a frenzy. The were hitting the baitfishes like crazy. There were splashes all over the place. The queenies started their feeding frenzied about 50 meters away from where our baits were. They were slowing working their way towards our bait. Then everything stopped. The frenzy came to a halt about 5 meters away from our bait. Everyone was cursing by then. Why did it had to stop...!!!!! 5 more meters and the queenies would have reached our bait. I did try casting my lures towards where the frenzy was, sadly no takers.

Soon it was time for us to pack up and leave. We didn't get what we came for. With heavy hearts, we pack up our bags and proceeded to board the boat.

:::... They had a good time ...:::

The boat ride back was suprisingly smooth. No bumps along the way. By the time we got back home all of us were tired, stinking, hungry but HAPPY.

:::... Our total catch ...:::

CONCLUSION : I would say that this trip was a little dissapointing. Although we had the whole loghthouse for ourselves, and we could see the fish were in a frezy, we didn't manage to land and biggies. Even the small baitfishes were hard to come by. The ones that we caught were quite small. Hopefully, our next trip would be a much better trip.